Lords
Debate
3 November 2025
3 contributions
Planning and Infrastructure Bill
I agree with what the noble Lord, Lord Lansley, has just said. Philanthropists in the past gave areas of green space and there have been scandals where councils have sold them off for money, and we all complain that there are no more playing fields, for example. This smells a bit like that. It is al…
My Lords, I will say just one sentence in support of Amendment 238A in the name of the noble Lord, Lord Meston. It is a deeply humane, very minor amendment, and I hope that the Government will get behind it.
+1 more contribution in this session
Lords
Debate
29 October 2025
4 contributions
Planning and Infrastructure Bill
My Lords, that was great fun. I hope the noble Baroness feels better for her confession of how many Conservative amendments she signed. It is a surprise to us all, I am sure.
I take a slightly different view. I do not know why we did not vote on Amendment 123; I wish we had, because I certainly wou…
My Lords, this is Report, so I will indeed be brief. Yes, the case is well made for cavity-nesting bird bricks, and I shall just speak briefly to Amendment 138. Those who heard me in Committee will remember that I gave a bit of a treatise on ragwort. I have had endless Members come up to me and than…
+2 more contributions in this session
Lords
Oral Questions
29 October 2025
Water Companies: Private Ownership
I agree completely with the noble Lord. Efficient, precise and forensic regulation is needed in this sector. That came across very clearly in the report of the Independent Water Commission led by Sir Jon Cunliffe. In response to his report, we have already committed to establishing a single regulato…
Lords
Debate
29 October 2025
2 contributions
Planning and Infrastructure Bill
My Lords, I first congratulate the noble Lord, Lord Deben, on getting a permission within a year—perhaps he could give us all a few tips on how to achieve that. I really want to support Amendment 119, but I am concerned that it is so general. It does not specify what the barriers are—we may know wha…
My Lords, I will be brief. I declare my interest as a director of my family farming company. I will not make a long speech.
I looked at my notes on Amendment 122, which is an important amendment. They read: “Guidance simply needed to stop the commissars of Natural England running amok”. That probab…
Lords
Debate
27 October 2025
Planning and Infrastructure Bill
My Lords, very briefly and without the eloquence of the last two speakers, I want to support Amendment 90 from the noble Lord, Lord Lansley. I live near Magna Park and the junction of the M1 and M6 motorways. I believe that Magna Park is the largest distribution centre in Europe. It seems obvious th…
Lords
Debate
16 October 2025
2 contributions
Crime and Policing Bill
My Lords, we live in an age where pretty much all of us carry in our pocket the means to access pornographic content so extreme that it would be illegal for any shop to sell it to any adult, anywhere in the country and, until very recently, children have had ready access to this extreme content. As …
Again, the Bill covers a range of legislative options on a range of matters. In parallel to that, there are two other aspects of work. We will produce a policing White Paper very shortly, which will look at some of the issues in policing and how we can improve efficiencies. With the National Police …
Lords
Oral Questions
16 October 2025
Stablecoin Ownership
The UK Government recognise that facilitating stablecoin innovation is important for UK competitiveness. The Bank of England is the independent regulator for systemic stablecoin and can design its regime as necessary to manage the associated risks. However, it is a matter for the Government to decid…
Lords
Debate
14 October 2025
5 contributions
Renters’ Rights Bill
Oh, they are in the same group. It is not my afternoon, is it? Pray continue.
My Lords, I support Motion C1 in the name of the noble Lord, Lord Cromwell. I repeat my interest, in that my wife owns properties in London which she rents out, from which I occasionally benefit. I thank the Minister for meeting the noble Lord, Lord Cromwell, and me to discuss the matter. Her engage…
+3 more contributions in this session
Lords
Debate
17 September 2025
14 contributions
Planning and Infrastructure Bill
My Lords, I start by confirming my support for all three of the amendments in the name of the noble Lord, Amendments 253, 296 and 297. However, I caution the use of “non-native”; it is the invasive aspect that is the problem. What could be more English than a rose? What could be a more typical Engli…
I invite the noble Lord to spend a series of weekends with me and my family pulling up ragwort across the organic grassland, which we bale for organic dairy farmers. After that, he may consider that ragwort is fine in his backyard but that, for those who are trying to feed the nation, it is a seriou…
+12 more contributions in this session
Lords
Debate
17 September 2025
4 contributions
Planning and Infrastructure Bill
My Lords, this is my first intervention today and, of course, I am speaking personally. I wholeheartedly support what the Government Whip said about this being Committee stage and how it should be conducted, but this is a big Bill and it needs proper scrutiny. As the Minister has told us today, ther…
All the amendments in this group are basically trying to answer the question: what would success look like, and how do we measure it? I guess it is the old consultants’ cliché, I guess. The point I was concerned about was not just a financial audit but measuring the performance of EDPs. Environmenta…
+2 more contributions in this session
Lords
Debate
15 September 2025
6 contributions
Planning and Infrastructure Bill
My Lords, I start by declaring that I have shares in a family company that owns a farm in the Midlands. To avoid giving a Second Reading speech, and to save us all quite a lot of time, I will jump over what I was going to say on Amendment 210 and just say that I agree thoroughly with the speeches of…
My Lords, the noble Lord, Lord Cameron of Dillington, and the noble Earl, Lord Lytton, have added their names to my amendment; they both apologise for being unable to be present in the Committee today.
This amendment would introduce a code of practice for compulsory purchase. It is widely accepted …
+4 more contributions in this session
Lords
Debate
9 September 2025
4 contributions
Planning and Infrastructure Bill
My Lords, I assure the noble Baroness, Lady Bennett, that many good things come from Australia, and she is one of them. The tapping on the tank she describes is exactly what I have been doing in Leicestershire in recent weeks. I have some experience of water harvesting, both from domestic roofs and …
I should just quickly say that we can learn a lot from Brazil as well as Australia. I am in favour of the amendment; I would just add that I did not realise that water butts were a declarable interest, and if they are, I had better declare that I too have some.
+2 more contributions in this session
Lords
Debate
4 September 2025
2 contributions
Planning and Infrastructure Bill
My Lords, I support Amendment 95. Nobody likes to see fees going up, and I totally support the noble Baroness, Lady Scott, in her concern about calculation and control. I also support the noble Baroness, Lady Thornhill, in her very well-reasoned cry for support for the SME builders.
I want to put m…
My Lords, I endorse completely the speeches by the noble Baroness, Lady Miller, and her supporters. She introduced it engagingly and comprehensively. I have therefore scribbled out most of what I was going to say. She has done the Committee a double service in that respect.
A common difficulty for …
Lords
Debate
1 September 2025
3 contributions
Planning and Infrastructure Bill
My Lords, with the solar energy that is reaching me at the moment, it is actually quite hard to see whether there is anybody out there, but I will take it for granted that there is and that they are all listening with rapt attention.
I apologise that I was unable to participate in earlier debates o…
My Lords, I would like to ask for a point of clarity from the noble Earl, of which I gave him due warning earlier today. As neither he nor the Minister picked up my question in the debate on Amendment 77, I hope that I will be luckier in this debate on Amendment 78.
Subsection (1)(a) of the propose…
+1 more contribution in this session
Lords
Proceedings
23 July 2025
Independent Water Commission
My Lords, the Minister and I have a long and mainly happy history of trying to reform the water industry, including the replacement of Ofwat. I read with interest the 88 recommendations in this very timely and useful report. There is a lot to discuss, much of it welcome, but for now I will focus on …
Lords
Debate
15 July 2025
3 contributions
Renters’ Rights Bill
My Lords, it is a great pleasure to follow the noble Baroness, Lady Kennedy. I have also enjoyed my encounters with the Minister, with her, to discuss these issues. I rise to speak to Amendment 110 in my name. I am very grateful for the support of the noble Lords, Lord Hogan-Howe and Lord Best, who …
I thank the Minister for thanking me, but I have not spoken to this amendment.
+1 more contribution in this session
Lords
Debate
14 July 2025
Employment Rights Bill
I will speak very briefly on the three amendments. I am very grateful to the noble Baroness, Lady O’Grady, for namechecking me among the illustrious supporters.
First, on government Amendment 46, I have been going on about NDAs and whistleblowers for a long time over the years and it is great to fi…
Lords
Debate
2 July 2025
4 contributions
House of Lords (Hereditary Peers) Bill
My Lords, while we are all pondering what might have been, I will just say that I agree, to an extent, with the noble Lords, Lord Jackson and Lord Hannan. Something that worries me about HOLAC, or any kind of body like it, is that the establishment appoints itself, which risks losing diversity.
On …
I agree very much with the noble Lord, Lord Newby, who said almost everything I was about to say in the next group, but it is no less welcome for that. I just want to pick up the point about us all voting for each other. I was here in 1999, and it was a very unpleasant experience to have people cons…
+2 more contributions in this session
Lords
Debate
2 July 2025
House of Lords (Hereditary Peers) Bill
My Lords, I will be brief. I have very much enjoyed the last contribution. I am sure we all did. We are all encouraged to declare if we are hereditary Peers, so I do so. The irrelevance of this was brought home to me at breakfast today, when one of my life Peer colleagues said to me that they did no…
Lords
Debate
1 July 2025
2 contributions
Renters’ Rights Bill
If I may add one note to what the noble Lord has just said, it is very common in commercial contracts to have CPI over a series of periods followed by a reset to market level, in part because CPI may take it up too high and it comes back down to market level. I think that needs to be part of this am…
My Lords, Amendment 58 is in my name. I express my gratitude to the noble Lord, Lord Pannick, who apologises that he is unable to be with us today but who has added his name to the amendment, and of course to the noble Lord, Lord Hacking —and indeed to the Minister and her officials for the time the…
Lords
Debate
1 July 2025
3 contributions
Renters’ Rights Bill
My Lords, I did not intend to speak to this amendment but, since I am, I declare that I do not rent out any residential property, but my children are tenants and rent out property in their own right. There are two sources of potential misery here: one is turning out a tenant, the other is being unab…
In respect of Amendment 21, does the Minister accept that denying someone the ability to move in a carer to look after their family in the way that was outlined will be an enormous temptation for abuse? The best outcome in that context is likely to be that people will simply hold the property empty …
+1 more contribution in this session
Lords
Oral Questions
18 June 2025
Abducted Ukrainian Children
In the noble Lord’s question is the point about Russification, which tells us a lot about some of the motivation for the kidnapping of these children and for the war more generally. On the issue of records, it is difficult at the moment. We are working with the Government of Ukraine to try to get ac…
Lords
Debate
4 June 2025
Data (Use and Access) Bill [HL]
My Lords, I have not spoken previously on this issue, and I do not have the creative abilities of so many noble Members of this House, but I have listened repeatedly to these debates. It is right now to speak briefly in support of protecting our creative industries so that we can continue to reap th…
Lords
Debate
19 May 2025
2 contributions
Employment Rights Bill
My Lords, as the first boy to speak tonight, I want to say what a pleasure it is to follow such a powerful and persuasive group of speakers. I support all the amendments in this group.
I turn first to the NDA amendments. NDAs can be appropriate in sectors where intellectual property, commercial con…
I would love to join such a meeting. I lost count of the number of times the Minister said “consider”. I hope we are going to do more than consider and are going to act. In addition, her long list of things that are already available just highlights that there is a whole piece of work to be done her…